A crucial part of PLU’s mission is to prepare its students for life in an increasingly internationalized world, and an indispensable part of this life is the ability to speak and understand a foreign language.

“Through the diversity of languages grows the richness of the world, and with it, the diversity of that which we discover there.”
— Wilhelm von Humboldt

There are very few places left on earth in which it is still common for an educated person to speak only one language. This means that when you meet someone from another culture, that person is likely to know your language. Will you know hers?

Studying the German language and the cultures in which it is spoken fosters not only your intellectual growth, but your growth as a global citizen as well.

Many of the world’s greatest minds conceived their masterpieces in the German tongue. Only German gives you the invigorating chance to engage these philosophers, writers, politicians, musicians, and theologians one-on-one, in the living language that helped to shape their particular weltanschauung, or perspective on the world.

“If we spoke a different language, we would perceive a somewhat different world.”
— Ludwig Wittgenstein

Whether you decide to work someday for a commercial, not-for-profit, or government enterprise, the chances are greater every day that your work will bring you into contact with native speakers of German. Consider this: around 100 million Europeans — one fifth of the European Union’s population — are native speakers of German.

In fact, German is one of the ten most commonly spoken languages worldwide. Germany is the economic powerhouse of Europe: In 2013, this country (about the size of the state of Montana) claimed 7.7% of the world’s export market — only China (11.7%) and the United States (8.4%) exported more*. Proficiency in German can enhance your career opportunities in international business, foreign service, scholarship and teaching, publishing and journalism, and many other interesting and challenging careers.

*Data from the ‘Trade Profiles’ statistics published by the World Trade Organization (www.wto.org) in September 2014